Dirigible airship



Dec. 31, 1929. L. L HANsEN DIRIGIBLE AIRSHIP Filed Feb. 14, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Devc. 31, l929. L. L. HANSEN 1,741Q699 DIRIGIBLE AIRSHIP Filed Feb. 14, 1929 2 SheetS-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 3l, 1929 UNET er; STA ES PATENT OFFICE.

LORRIN L. HANSEN, OF WASTA, SOUTH DAKOTA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO CARL H. LOOCK, OF RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA DIRIGIBLE AIRSHIP Application filed February 14, 1929. Serial No. 339,984.

This invention relates to dirigible airships and it has for its object to provide an airsliip constructed in such manner that much higher speeds may be attained than have heretofore been possible. A further object of the invention is to provide an airship constructed in suoli manner that much greater safety is afforded passengers and crew than with known constructions. 1n addition it is designed to provide an airship which may be more easily handled, may be landed in a much more restricted space and may be landed with the assistance of a much smaller number of men than has heretofore been possible. s

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the detailed description which follows. A

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an airship constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view,

Fig. 3 is a front end elevation,

Fig. 4: is a detail view illustrating the ship in landing position,

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view through the rear portion of the ship,

Fig. 6 is a transverse vertical sectional view,

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the controls or rudders,

Fig. 8 is a detail view of the actuating mechanism of the passenger cabin, and

Fig. 9 is a detail view showing a modified form of spiral rib, having a concaved front face.

The airship of the present invention comprises, in the main, a hull 5, a bridge 6, hori- Zontal rudders 7, vertical rudders 8 and 9.

a passenger cabin 10 and a pilots cabinv 11. These several instrumentalitiesy with their vauxiliary associated parts are so designed and combined as to provide an -airship having the advantages above outlined. The hull 5 is in the form of an elongated cylinder which tapers at each end. This hull is made gas-tight and is lled with a lighter-than-air gas, so that the hull as a whole is of sucient buoyancy to bodily lift the ship. The hull is provided, upon its exterior surface, with a spiral vane 12 which extends substantially from end to end of the hull and constitutes the propelling means for the ship, propulsion being effected by bodily rotating the hull at high speed through means hereinafter described. The invention is not limited to the construction of the hull in any particular way, nor of any particular material. Neither is the invention limitedl to any particular arrangement of propelling vanes. Consequentlit is to be understood that the form illustrated is merely explanatory. In this preferred form the exterior shell of the hull is preferably made of some light, strong and durable metal. The vanes 12 are preferably so shaped as to provide concave front faces and convexrearfaces,saidconcavefront faces more effectively catching and acting upon the air than if they were flat. Additional strength and rigidity may be imparted to the hull by Corrugating the same, as illustrated, and in addition the metal of the vanes may be corrugated for the same purpose. If these parts are corrugated, the corrugations will extend along the lines of least resistance and the corrugations of the hull will extend in the same general direction as the vanes, so that the corrugated portions of the hull may, themselves, aid in the propelling effect, when the hull is rotated at high speed. When the hull is rotated it acts like a huge screw and moves forward through the air at a rate of speed limited only by its rate of Y rotation. Since none of the power delivered by the power plant of the ship has to be expended in lifting effort, but since all of this power may be expended in propulsive effort, it follows that the hull may be rotated at such a high rate of speed as to yield a correspondingly high rate of travel of the ship as `a whole.

The hull is mounted for bodily rotation upon shafts 13, which are ournaled in bearings 14:, these bearings, in turn, being trunnioned at 15 in the up-turned extremities 16 of bridge 6. The body portion of said bridge extends longitudinally beneath the ship from end to end thereof. This bridge may be c0nstructed in many different ways but for purposes of illustrating one practicable form, I

have shown it as comprising two T-irons, 17 and 18, which constitute the two upper coi'- ners of the bridge and an angle iron 19, con stituting the lower member of the bridge, the whole being substantially triangular in crosssection, and the main members 17, 18 and 19 being tied together by suitable braces 20. If desired, a walk-way 21 may be provided along the lower member 19 of the bridge. A passenger cabin 10, of any suitable design, is suspended by hangers 23 and trolley wheels 24 upon the trackways constituted by the irons 17 and 18. Guard wheels 25 travel along the under sides of said irons. The wheels 24 are preferably toothed and mesh with racks 26 that are formed upon the irons 17 and 18. Motion may be imparted to the wheels 24 by a suitable motor, such as an electric motor, 27, to cause the car 22 to travel bodily along the bridge, and the arrangement is such that this car may not only travel toward and from the forward end of the ship but may travel around the nose of the bridge in such manner that, in landing, the ship may land substantially upon its nose, while maintaining the passenger cabin in a substantially horizontal position. In other words, when it is desired to land, the horizontal rudders are so manipulated as to direct the bow of the ship downward while, at the saine time, the passenger cabin is caused to travel bodily toward the bow of the ship and almost to the extremity of the up-turned extension of the bridge within which the forward shaft 13, is journalled (see Fig. 4). This results in standing the hull almost on end, and since the buoyancy of the hull is sufficient to lift the ship, it. follows that the hull must be rotated to exert a propulsive effect, in order to bring the ship to the ground, though', of course, at this time,the speed of rotation of the hull is reduced to such an extent as to bring the ship to the ground very gently. By virtue of this arrangement, it is not necessary to discharge any of the gas from the hull in order to lower the ship, nor is it necessary to approach the ground at any considerable rate of speed, as is the case where vanes are relied upon to force the ship downwardly. Further, this arrangement permits the lan ding of a ship of considerable size in a much smaller space than where the ship lands with its hull lying in substantial parallelism with the surface of the earth.

Many ways of rotating the hull will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. In the present exemplification of the invention, l have illustrated, for this purpose, bevel gearing 30 driven through shaft 31 from a suitable power plant 32, such, for example, as an internal combustion engine. This engine is preferably located in a pilots cabin 11. A pilots seat 34 in said cabin, is trunnioned at 35 in such manner that it may maintain its horizontal position throughout the tipping movement of the ship.

' Any of the conventional controlling cables 40 for the horizontal rudders 7 and 'vertical rudders 8 and 9 may be employed. As illustrating a purely conventional form, l have shown. cable pulls 4:1 adjacent the seat 34 in the pilots cabin, but it is to be understood that this arrangement is merely for purposes of illustration, and that these cables may be connected to conventional steering wheels, levers or the like in a manner well known in this art. It is to be noted, however, that the cable 40 of the upper vertical rudder is independent of the control cable of the lower vertical rudder. That is to say, these rudders may be operated independently of each other, and thus they may be set in opposition to each other when the ship is standing on its nose and approaching the ground. When set in opposition to each other they act much after the manner of fan or propeller blades, and tend to swing the bridge bodily about the shafts 13. The purpose of thus setting these vertical rudders in opposition to each other is to counteract the tendency of the bridge to move around the shafts 13. This tendency of the bridge to move in a circular path is caused by the kick or thrust of the bevel gearing which drives the hull. lh'en the hull rotates there will, of course, be a blast of air toward and past the rudders and this will act when said vertical rudders are set in opposition to hold the bridge against bodily rotative movement about the axis of the hull. The passenger cabin is preferably provided with yieldable shock absorbers a5,

so that its contact with the ground is cushioned to any extent that may be required.

When the hull is rotating at a high rate of Speed, a gyroscopic effect is present which tends to resist the turning of the ship from its course, suddenly. This gives a much smoother riding vessel when the air is rough or spotty than would be the case where no gyroscopic effect is present.

By inverting the structure shown in Fig. 1, the device may be used upon the water, the bridge, in this case, lying above the hull and the hull being partly submerged in the water. The bridge could be kept in an upright posi? tion by suitable outriggers carrying pontoons rest-ing upon the surface of the water.

ltis to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise construction set iin' upon the bridge and comprising means for imparting bodily rotation to the hull, vanes upon the exterior of the hull for propelling the ship under the rotative action of the hull, a trackway supported by the bridge, and a cabin mounted to travel bodily longitudinally along the trackway, said trackway being curved in such manner and extending to such a point around the nose of the airship that the cabin may be caused tomaintain a substantially horizontal position throughout the downward tilting movement of the ship.

2. An airship comprising a buoyant hull, a bridge extending the full length of the hull, means for mounting the hull for bodily rotation about its axis, within the extremities of said bridge, a power plant supported upon the bridge and comprising means for imparting bodily rotation to the hull, vanes upon the exterior of the hull for propelling the ship under the rotative action of the hull, a cabin mounted to travel bodily longitudinally along the bridge, and a propelling means for moving said cabin along said bridge, said propelling means being controllable from a point outside of said cabin.

3. An airship comprising a buoyant hull, a bridge extending the full length of the hull, means for mounting the hull for bodily rotation about its axis, within the extremities of said bridge, and a power plant supported upon the bridge and comprising means for imparting bodily rotation to the hull, vanes upon the exterior of the hull for propelling the ship under the rotative action of the hull, said bridge being curved upwardly in front of the hull, a cabin mounted to travel longitudinally along the bridge, and means for propelling the cabin along the bridge and around said curved portion of said bridge.

4f. An airship comprising a buoyant hull, a bridge extending longitudinally beneath the hull and curved upwardly to lie substantially vertical at each end of the hull, means for mounting the hull for bodily rotation within the extremities of the bridge, a trackway carried by the bridge, a passenger cabin mounted to travel along said trackway, means for propelling the cabin along said trackway, a pilot-s cabin carried by the bridge rearwardly of the passenger cabin, a power plant in the pilots cabin, connections through which bodily rotation is imparted to the hull from said power plant, and a spiral vane upon the exterior of the hull, extending substantially the full length of said hull, as andy for the purposes set forth.

5. A structure as recited in claim 4, in combination with vertical and horizontal ruddersat the rear end of the bridge, and means for operating said rudders from the pilots cabin.

6. A structure as recited in claim 4l, in combination with means for maintaining electrical communication between the pilots cabin and the passenger cabin throughout the movement of the latter, along its track- 7l.7 A structure as recited in claim 4, wherein the trackway extends in a continuous curve from that portion of the bridge which lies beneath the hull to that portion of the bridge which lies in front of the hull.

8. An airship comprising a buoyant hull, a bridge extending longitudinally beneath the hull and curved upwardly to lie substantially vertical at each end of the hull, means for mounting the hull for bodily rotation within the extremities of the bridge, a trackway carried by the bridge, a passenger cabin mounted to travel along said trackway, means for propelling the cabin along said traclway, a pilots cabin carried by the bridge rearwardly of the passenger cabin, a power plant in the pil ots cabin, connections through which bodily rotation is imparted to the hull from said power plant, and a spiral vane upon the exterior of the hull, extending substantially the full length of said hull, a horizontal rudder and a pair of vertical rudders, and means for actuating said rudders from the pilots cabin, the rudders of the vertical pair being capable of movement independently of each other and in opposite directions.

9. An airship comprising a buoyant hull having a spiral vane upon its periphery, means for mounting the hull for bodily rotation about its axis, a bridge extending the full length of the hull and within which the hull is mounted for rotation, a trackway along the bridge comprising a rack, a cabin mounted to travel upon said trackway, and a power element carried by the cabin and comprising a pinion meshing with said rack and by which the cabin is caused to travel along said trackway.

lO. An airship comprising a buoyant hull having a spiral vane upon its periphery, means for mounting the hull for bodily rotation about its axis, a bridge extending the full length of the hull and within which the hull is mounted for rotation, a trackway along the bridge comprising a rack, a cabin mounted to travel upon said trackway, a power element carried by the cabin and comprising a pinion meshing with said rack and by which the cabin is caused to travel along said trackway, and a pilots cabin adjacent the rear end of the bridge, the power element of the first-named cabin being controllable from the pilots cabin.

In testimony whereof I alix my signature.

LORRIN L. HANSEN. 

